"Satomi!"

I turned around to see my best friend, Blossom jogging towards me. She actually runs pretty slowly for a dryad. Let me explain. I go to Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for kids who are half human, half god. Blossom is a dryad, or tree nymph. And they all have to run pretty fast to get away from satyrs suitors. (Half man, half goat.)

"Hi Blossom! Have you seen Chiron?" Yeah, Chiron, the immortal trainer of heroes from Greek mythology, who also happens to be a centaur. He basically runs the entire camp, although the official title goes to Dionysus.

"What, no "Oh, how have you been the last nine months? I hope your soil's been damp enough. It must be hard without your best friend, with creepy satyrs and squirrels for company." she replied sarcastically.

"Just answer the question." I said as I rolled my eyes. Usually she wasn't that cranky.

"Okay, okay. Um," she paused for a while, supposedly deep in thought. I knew better. Blossom has a photographic memory, not to mention she's the smartest person I know. Then again, it's not like a daughter of Terpsichore (the muse of dancing) would know many other demigods. My mom's friendly enough- I've even talked to her before, which is very weird for a half-blood. But she never had any other kids in my generation, so I eat alone, sleep alone, and my only friends are Blossom, and Max, a centaur. Both good and pathetic. Good: I have friends! Pathetic: they're not even human. Anyway, back to the story.

"He's in the attic of the Big House." Blossom finished. I gasped.

"Consulting the oracle?" I asked in horror.

My face must have been pretty fantastic, because my response was her wheezy, whistling laugh.

"Oh, gods, no!" she replied, still giggling. "He and the staff are doing spring some spring cleaning."

"Yeah, it's summer."

Blossom shrugged. "Better late than never?" She paused, and then continued. "Why do you ask?"

"A few hellhounds followed me to the border." I said with casual excitement, like I was talking about a vacation or something else safe and/ or sane.

Hellhounds: big mangy mutts of slobber and death. To some more talented demigods, they would be like flies, annoying and ugly, but easy to kill. To me:

"Oh. You want to use them for practice fights." Blossom said with a tiny frown. She muttered something under her breath that sounded like "violent half-bloods".

"Yup!" I did a little happy dance. She sighed possibly the longest sigh in the history of ever.

"Well, let's go get Chiron, then."

The Big House was a mess. About five satyrs in orange camp T-shirts piled bulging plastic bags on top of one another in an enormous heap. Others took the bags and tossed them on Argus's truck, which was probably headed for the dumpster. Cardboard boxes of all sizes were scattered around the yard. Some of the Ares and Hephestus campers dragged them over to the porch. Harpies on the roof attacked the leaves like they were their mortal enemies. Two particularly buff satyrs carried a huge box labled "Miscellaneous". At Camp Half-Blood, miscellaneous can mean anything from toothpaste the disembodied monster heads, so I was glad i didn't have to look through it.

Blossom stopped a fuzzy headed ginger with a strawberry roan coat that I recognized as Max.

"Hey Max." He smiled wide when he saw us. After we were squished to death in his crazy hugs, his grin grew.

"Hi Satomi. Hi Blossom. What's up?"

"We need to find Chiron." I said. Max's smile devolved to a frown. He did his best to replace it.

"Oh. I think he was in the attic. But, um, he's kind of busy. Maybe you could come back later?"

"No time. The hellhounds might have run away already." I tried to push him aside, which was hard, considering I was only just taller than his withers.

A look of confusion crossed his face. Probably wondering why I wasn't glad giant death dogs of the underworld who hunger for human flesh had run away. He shook his head.

"Actually, you can't. Go in, that is. Uh, really messy. Plus, you have allergies, right? Wouldn't want to cause a reaction. You should really go. As in, right now." An extremely nervous grin appeared on his already nervous-looking, freckley face. Blossom's normally large deep green eyes narrowed.

"Max, what's going on?"

He whinnied a laugh. "Going on? Well, we're cleaning and-"

"No, what's really going on?" she interrupted with her arms folded.

His eyes scanned the Big House.

"We're not supposed to say."

"Max." Blossom said in a warning tone one usually reserves for Mrs. O'Leary when she chews up your sheild. He put his hands half up in a mini "I surrender" motion. I just blinked. It was a good thing Blossom was smart enough for the both of us, otherwise I'd never know anything important that goes on at camp.

"Chiron needed to have a meeting with dionysus and camp security. Apparently it's something really bad, because he staged an entire clean-up as a cover."

"Or maybe the Big House was just really dirty." a deep voice offered from behind me. I turned around.

"Nico DiAngelo!" I exclaimed.

"That's my name." He cocked his head in adorable confusion. "But who are you?"

Blossom, knowing that I'm not worth beans for conversation around hot guys, took the liberty of introducing us.

"I'm Cherry Blossom, but everyone calls me Blossom. That's Satomi Arai."

"Charmed. Now, if you don't mind, I need to steal your friend Max here for a moment." I gawked. Blossom nodded.

Nico pulled Max aside. Fortunetly, I inherited graceful, silent movement from my mom, so I'm a good eavesdropper.

"What were you thinking? No one can know about the threat, especially not a second year camper!" Nico growled. I silently freaked out. He knew I was a second year camper! He knew I existed! He took a deep breath. "How much do they know?"

"Okay, first of all, don't go all death god on me before you know the whole story. Second of all, all I said was Chiron was having a private meeting, and it was after I tried to make them go away." Max replied indignantly.

"Max, you're a horrible liar."

"Alright, I may have mentioned the cleaning was a cover-up, and whatever it is they're meeting about is exceedingly dangerous." he replied with his head down.

Nico nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I heard that part." His eyes turned sharp. "And you're positive that's all you said?"

"Yes. Can we go now?"

"Nothing about," he gestured to the ground. "our friend down under?"

"I told you, I didn't give any details. Besides, we don't even know it it's real. Maybe they were bluffing."

"And if they weren't?"

Nico and Max were both silent. Finally Max spoke.

"You're not even supposed to know. Only camp staff."

"Chiron made an exception. Thought I could get some information."

"Oh." was all Max said. After a particularly awkward pause Nico suggested that they go back. Max agreed.

I ran silently up to Blossom and filled her in on the conversation. She gasped.

"So that means-"

"Sorry it took so long." Blossom was cut off by Nico.

"Oh, no problem." I said. "Um, so: Chiron. Can I talk to him or not?"

"I'll see if he's done." Max replied.